Data Error: Cyclic Redundancy Check

Alright, I installed ArmA 2 steam bundle. Ran Arma 2 first installed OA PR etc ran them all for first run. Played just regular Arma 2 for a while just fine, but when I play OA after about 5 min of gameplay, it freezes closes then says "Data Error: Cyclic Redundancy Check" I read around the forums but no one has said that the others work just fine or the can run the game for 5 min... I've reinstalled over 5 + times and its really frustrating! I just want a fix...

A cyclic redundancy check error means the data is corrupted. IIRC Steam - which I do not use - has an options to verify the install, and will attempt to repair a faulty installation. Search the Steam troubleshooting sticky. Steam users will be better able to assist you with that.

If Steam says the install is OK but the errors persist, you may have a hard drive problem. The following steps will require you to run as administrator.

Open the event viewer from the control panel & look for error messages (red icon) in the System & Application logs, especially for anything where the "Source is "disk". You may find an error like "The device, \Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad block." If so, repair it as follows:

Right click on the drive and select "Properties > Tools > Check now", tick both boxes & re-boot. chkdsk will scan for & attempt to recover any bad blocks. You may still get an error if the data moved to a clean block by chkdsk was corrupted; verify &/or re-download + reinstall should solve that.

If you have had a bad block error it doesn't mean your drive is dying, these happen occasionally, but as part of good housekeeping you should check the logs in event viewer every day, these will flag hardware, software & security issues that you may need to attend to. Most HD vendors provide a suite of tools tht includes Win X software that will check the Smart status of the drive, scan for & recover bad sectors, etc., & provide a much broader capability than Windows. Do read the manuals carefully, selecting the wrong option can, for example, wipe everything from the drive irrecoverably.

A frequent occurrence of "bad block" errors is bad news from the drive. You should replace it, or at least back up all the files you do not want to lose.